nishment and
confusion to see the young stranger standing close before her. She
heard him speaking to her in a voice which seemed so strange and soft,
that even if she had been more collected she would have taken it for
granted that he said something hopelessly unintelligible to her, and her
first movement was to turn her head a little away, and lift up a corner
of her green serge mantle as a screen. He repeated his words--

"Forgive me, pretty one, for awaking you. I'm dying with hunger, and
the scent of milk makes breakfast seem more desirable than ever."

He had chosen the words "_muoio di fame_" because he knew they would be
familiar to her ears; and he had uttered them playfully, with the
intonation of a mendicant. This time he was understood; the corner of
the mantle was dropped, and in a few moments a large cup of fragrant
milk was held out to him. He paid no further compliments before raising
it to his lips, and while he was drinking, the little maiden found
courage to look up at the long dark curls of this singular-voiced
stranger, who had asked for food in the tones of a beggar, but who,
though his clothes were much damaged, was unlike any beggar she had ever
seen.

While this process of survey was going on, there was another current of
feeling that carried her hand into a bag which hung by the side of the
mule, and when the stranger set down his cup, he saw a large piece of
bread held out towards him, and caught a glance of the blue eyes that
seemed intended as an encouragement to him to take this additional gift.

"But perhaps that is your own breakfast," he said. "No, I have had
enough without payment. A thousand thanks, my gentle one."

There was no rejoinder in words; but the piece of bread was pushed a
little nearer to him, as if in impatience at his refusal; and as the
long dark eyes of the stranger rested on the baby-face, it seemed to be
gathering more and more courage to look up and meet them.

"Ah, then, if I must take the bread," he said, laying his hand on it, "I
shall get bolder still, and beg for another kiss to make the bread
sweeter."

His speech was getting wonderfully intelligible in spite of the strange
voice, which had at first almost seemed a thing to make her cross
herself. She blushed deeply, and lifted up a corner of her mantle to
her mouth again. But just as the too presumptuous stranger was leaning
forward, and had his fingers on the arm that held up the screening
ma